Mounds of snow Raffi Auto

Yeah, now you know I am back in Montreal, here is a painting of Raffi Auto shop on Harley street in the Westhaven neighborhood done at lunch hour today. It was an enormously difficult painting to complete because I completely lost my cold acclimatization while in Brazil, not to mention came down with a lingering head-cold. The other adjustment was I had to use salt water, and as usual, the blobs of paint were frozen hard as a rock on the palette. Brazil in contrast, I used fresh water, and the paints were goopy and tacky due to the heat. Somehow, I held on and got the entire Raffi painting done on location as you can see, including my initials in place of their sign. Its set to warm up to a balmy zero ℃ after the weekend, although we still wont be wearing the new flip-flops quite yet!

Mounds of snow Raffi Auto, 6 x 7.5" watercolour February 2026

Brazil 2026 palette: earthy and warm

I painted a picture of my palette from the Brazil trip, actually I had two palettes with the identical set up. I also brought three extra tubes of paint, yellow (PY154), dark blue (PB60), and dark green (PBk31). There are 22 blobs of paint on the palette, although several of them are duplicates so there were 18 distinct paints. The duplicates were there because of different uses, for example in position 11 there is a yellow to mix greens with, and position 16 is the same yellow but used to mix oranges. Each day I rinsed the mixing areas lightly with water and a hogs hair brush to keep it clean, and washed my brushes with glycerine-based soap and water. This kept the colours fresh for each day of painting. 

Since its my third trip to Brazil I already had notes and experience. Raw sienna (PBr7) was important so I added a big blob of it in the upper left mixing area (position 13), and used it a lot. The yellow went fast too, which was fun because I never use much yellow in the Canadian winter, but in the Brazil landscape its the number 1 colour to use. Magenta got a real workout in Brazil, I carry a dark magenta (PV55, position 6) and a bright magenta (PR122 position 20), these mix well with the indo blue (PB60 position 7 and 15) to make purple. The colourful flowering trees used these mixtures. Since the soil in South America is a deep red earth colour, it permeates much of the landscape. So I used plenty of burnt sienna (PR101) which actually contains the same iron oxide pigment that is in the soil, and also in the beans!

Brazil 2026 palette: warmth

Here are some more details, I tried to number the position of each paint, but the first one was cut off in the scan, 

1.  yellow ochre (PY43, also PY42).... this is great in a dilute wash for creating the subtle yellow tint in the Brazilian sky. I applied it to most of the cloudy areas. Also mix with purple to get glowing warm greys.  

2. umber (PBr7),  good for sweaty concrete, also weathered Brazilian plaster that is common on some buildings. 

3. burnt umber (PBr7), shadow area of mangoes, some tree barks, center of some flowers.  

4. burnt sienna (PBr7), exposed south american earth, clay pots

5. maroon (PY179), dark red shadows on clay pots, fruit, red flowers

6. dark magenta (PV55), purple flowers, deep red mixtures

7. dark blue (PB60), dark purple, cool sky at top of painting, mix with earth for charcoal neutrals, cloud shadows, mix with yellow for distant mountain blue. 

8. phthalo green blue shade (PG7), car windshields, dilute wash for horizon cyan colour with phthalo blue

9. dark green (PBk31), pine trees, dark shadows of trees, shadow on grass

10. phthalo green yellow shade (PG36), greenery with yellow mixes, background of Brazil flag

11. yellow (PY154) greenery with yellow mixes, chatreuse, mix with black for shadow

12. orange-yellow (PY110), olive greens, warm tint on chartreuse

13. Raw sienna (PBr7), add to most mixtures, thin glaze for warmpth

14*. pyrol orange (PO73), night skies with dark blue, and for neutral purple shades.  

15. dark indo blue (PO60), night skies with pyrol orange, and for neutral purple shades.   

16.  yellow (PY154), same as other yellow, for mixing warm yellows like flowers, car headlights, bananas!

17. orange (PO62), use for orange objects like ... oranges! sun highlight on brown objects or exposed soil, and cats fur

18. pyrol orange (PO73), bright orange in some fruits, pylons 

19. pyrol red (PR254), tail lights of cars, some flowers, some fruit

20. magenta (PR122), magenta flowers, bright purples

21. blue sapphire (PB15), sky blue, mix with PG7 for horizon blue, some  blue objects like water-collectors in Brazil

22. black (PBk6), dark shadows like under cars some times, also for making dark yellow, dark green, dark red. use dilute for initial painting outline

 

 *pyrol orange and indo blue are both very high chroma pigments and mix a fantastic range of dark blue to smokey violets, however, if you mix them with other paints, they get dirty and the mix wont look nice. So I keep a secondary set of blobs just for mixing these two paints together. 

Last painting from Brazil Trip

On what we though was the last day of the trip, I did this scene of a pink flower in a shrub outside of the locked gate of the family home. It seemed to be symbolic of São Paulo, a beautiful city locked behind tall walls, barbed wire and gates. There is a massive wealth disparity here, rich people fly to work in helicopters from their luxury condos, while poor people live in brick and tin shanties. Slavery only ended towards the end of the 19th century, in 1872 there were around 1.5 million slaves out of a population of 10 million people. With about 150 years passing, the wealth inequity is nowhere near to being leveled out, so the rich people build higher walls and taller fences. You can see my paintings from a wealthy area called Indaiatuba, rated the best city in Brazil to live in, where the houses are sleek and behind gated communities. Cilei's family is approximately in the middle class, they are well off enough to have proper houses and afford good education, which has to be paid for since the public education system is underfunded. The painting was meant to show the contrast of the sturdy steel fencing with a palm tree and delicate flower in the background. 

Pink flower locked gate, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

In this scene, a massive jungle tree is still visible over the top of the auto shop across the street from the family home. When Cilei's dad built the home about 45 years ago, the entire neighborhood had trees like this, and rain forest-clouds would form. It was a quiet jungle paradise. Now it is a densely populated built-up neighborhood right next to a noisy highway. But it still has the charm and great views, and most of all, its a family home full of love and camaraderie. We commented how a wealthy person living alone behind a gated community with millions of Reals to spend is perhaps not as rich as a person living day-to-day and surrounded by friends and family. All the same, we could have done without the motorcycles zooming by. 

Tall tree autoshop, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

 

Waiting in the departure gate late at night and out flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems with the airplane, better than when up in the air I guess. That meant another 5 hours of waiting in various lines to get to a hotel. The next day there was down time, so I made a few last painting, this one showing a biplane-installation, it was actually up on a pole like a monument, but I omitted the pole to make it look like it was landing. In fact, huge passenger planes were zooming by at very low altitude to land at the nearby GRU airport. Cars and a commuter train could be seen in the background. 

Biplane near hotel, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

Finally, I found a Brazilian flag to paint, seen in the center of the painting. The building had something to do with the airport, it was glass-paneled with plaster walls. So all of the Brazil paintings are up on the blog now, there was one more I did at the Buddhist temple that I added to the end of the blog here. I also scanned all of the paintings, re-uploaded the images for better quality, and corrected the typos and formatting issues I had while blogging on the phone. Back in Montreal its -17℃ and I have no desire to paint outside for the time being! Luckily it will warm up a bit this week. I will write a blog on the Brazil palette soon, there were some interesting things to talk about regarding paints. It was a good trip all in all with a bit of vacation, visiting, and working remotely all the while, and I have a sun tan to show for it! 

Brazil flag near hotel, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026  

Cat nap and scenes around the family house

Up on the laundry platform, at the top of the spiral staircase, the cat was having a nap. Some of my laundry was up there drying, although there was not a whole lot of sun the last few days, it rained profusely. You can also see the concrete walls painted cobalt blue with orange tiling, and the outdoor laundry room under the platform. 

Cat nap, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

 

In front of the family home there is a very steep road in bad shape, on the other side they built up a bunch of auto-shops and car supplier businesses. This yellow-leaf tree was quite impressive against the greyish background. It made for a very textural scene. 

Yellow tree, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

 

Near the end of the trip and I had not used all of the 8 x 10" that I brought. This one shows more of the roof tops visible from the bedroom window. Its an impressive array of angles, textures and colours. When it rains, these roofs must be completely leak-proof, otherwise the houses would flood. Up in the top left you see some of the mega-condo complex they built over the last 3 years. 

More roof tops, 8 x 10" watercolour, February 2026 

 

 

The Park Ipe neighborhood is centered on a sports-park, now its full of basketball, volleyball, small soccer pitches, and tennis courts.  Here you see a quick painting done of the tennis courts while out on a walk with Cilei's father and nephew. It rained shortly after we left. 

Tennis court, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

Urban landscapes São Paulo

Today at lunch hour, I went out to paint some typical urban landscape scenes in the neighborhood. This one shows a gas station near the highway off ramp, with dense and colourful housing in the background. Everything is a little chaotic and noisy here, and the visuals are very busy, which matches the ambiance 

Gas station dense housing, 6 x 7.5" watercolour February 2026 

 

Looking towards the overpass, you can see the heavy traffic with cars trucks and motorcycles zipping by. In the background, jungle hills have been replaced with built-up housing and condos on the horizon. A factory and warehouse are nestled in among the residential area. Apparently, zoning laws are not really a thing here in Brazil! 

Traffic residential, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

Magenta dragon fruit

Here is a magenta dragon fruit, actually part of the cactus family. Despite its brilliant  magenta interior, its flavour is rather mild, like a pear or melon. Tiny black seeds have a crunchy consistency like chia. Magenta has had quite a workout on this trip, flowers, trees and fruit like this feature variations that I made primarily with quin magenta (PR122) and purple magenta (PV55). Even though paints are called magenta they are only about half way between red and true magenta. Only one paint falls on magenta, its called carbazol violet (PV23) and its very dark, like purple grape juice concentrate. Next time I come to Brazil in summer (Canadian winter) I will have to remember to bring along some carbazol violet. 

Magenta dragon fruit, 6 x 7.5 " watercolour, February 2026 

New facility in Park Ipe neighborhood

The house is in Park Ipe neighborhood, once a secluded jungle paradise, now its a bustling city soon to get its own metro (subway) stop. They built a small outdoor workout facility nearby, it has tall trees that drop large leaves on the ground. There are several tables here with tile chess boards part of the concrete surface.  

Chess tables in blue, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026

 

These trees have a blue-grey bark covered in dark yellow and deep green moss. Large leaves were strewn about. Cilei and I tidied up the leaves and picked up some trash before leaving. 

Mossy tree big leaves, 6 x 7.5"  watercolour , February 2026

 

Dotted along the highway are small motels painted in bright colours and decorated with things like hearts or hot peppers shaped like lips. Instead of front doors, they have a large garage door that lets people in from the highway, like a drive through motel? In the background are the tall jungle trees I painted a few days back during sunset. Cars and trucks rumbled by. 

Roadside ♡♡♡ motel, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026